Pre-Trip Activities
Pre-Trip Vocabulary
The following vocabulary and concepts will be useful in
the core classes of our environmental education program (and
are therefore divided according to class). Your students
may also find them useful in the elective classes you may
select.
- BEACH ECOLOGY
- Accretion - building up of land by physical forces
- Barrier island - long, narrow island lying parallel to
the mainland and separated from it by bay, lagoon, or marsh
- Bivalve - Mollusks having two shells (like clams, oysters,
and mussels)
- Continental Shelf - remaining submerged portion of the
coastal plain
- Continental Slope - the actual edge of the continent
whose slope rapidly falls to a deep plateau and eventually
into the ocean depths
- Erosion - process of being gradually worn away
- Georgia bight (South Atlantic bight) - inward-curving
shape of the coast line stretching from Cape Hatteras,
NC to Miami, FL
- Longshore current - current that runs parallel to the
shore within the surf zones
- Sandbar - submerged or exposed line of sand accumulated
by wave action
- Sand dunes - a hill of sand piled up by the wind
- Sea oats - a tall grass (Uniola panicolata) that grows
on the coast of the southern U.S. and helps hold the sand
dunes together
- Tides - periodic changes in the height of the ocean caused
by the gravitational forces of the moon and the sun
- Univalve - Mollusks having only one shell (like snails,
whelks, conchs)
- Wrack - debris washed up along the high tide line of
a beach
- MARSH ECOLOGY
- Anaerobic - without oxygen, as in anaerobic mud
- Barrier island - long, narrow island lying parallel to
the mainland and separated from it by bay, lagoon, or marsh
- Detritus - particles of dead organic matter and the decomposers
that live on it
- Estuary - body of water partially surrounded by land
where fresh water from rivers mixes with ocean water, creating
an area of remarkable biological productivity
- Hammock - areas of higher elevation in the salt marsh
which support shrubs and trees
- Salt marsh - a grassy area that extends along the shores
of estuaries and sheltered coasts in temperate regions
- Salt pan - an undrained area in a salt marsh in which
water gathers and leaves a deposit of salt on evaporation
- Spartina alterniflora - a tall perennial, plant which
dominates the salt marshes of coastal Georgia
- Tides - periodic changes in the height of the ocean caused
by the gravitational forces of the moon and the sun
- MARITIME FOREST ECOLOGY
- Canopy - the uppermost branchy layer of a forest
- Climax community - a stable, long-established community
of self-perpetuating organisms that tends not to change
with time
- Community - populations of all species that occupy a
particular habitat and interact within that habitat
- Dune ridge - upland ridges originally formed from sand
dunes on relic beaches
- Epiphyte - a plant that lives on another plant
- Maritime forest - the forests by the sea that are characterized
by live oaks, palms, and palmettos
- Microclimate - the essentially uniform local climate
of a small habitat
- Pioneer plants - plants capable of establishing themselves
in a bare area and initiating an ecological cycle
- Salt-shearing - pruning of tree limbs, buds, and leaves
the salt carried in the sea breezes
- Slough - freshwater areas ranging from temporary ponds
to permanent swamps and freshwater marshes, those on barrier
islands are typically formed in swales where the surface
of the ground is close to the water table
- Succession - the changes in species composition that
lead to a climax community
- Swale - low area between dune ridges
- Understory - the plants of a forest that grow low to
the ground
Pre-Trip Activity Suggestions
The following are suggestions for activities that you may
use in the classroom before or after your class comes to
Jekyll Island 4-H Center.
Language Arts--"The Marshes of Glynn" -
(Coming Soon!)
Tide Chart Graphing - The tidal influence
along the Georgia coast should not be underestimated. The
important salt marsh ecosystem is developed through tidal
action, and the beaches and sand sharing system are influenced
by the tides as well. Using a tide chart and graph paper,
students can incorporate math skills and plot the daily tidal
changes that occur on the coast. They can also correlate
the lunar phase with the tides and make projections for the
month of their trip. You can find tide charts online (www.noaa.gov).
- Research Papers/Posters/Projects/Brochures/Presentations -
students will have the opportunity to discover many new
and unusual forms of plant and animal life on Jekyll
Island. Below is a list of some of the most common flora
and fauna:
- Plants: Smooth cordgrass, glasswort,
cabbage palms, live oaks, saw tooth palmettos, Spanish
moss, lichen, resurrection fern, wax myrtle, sea oats,
southern red cedar, yucca, pennywort, poison ivy, muscadine
grapes, dog fennel, Hercules club
- Animals: Ghost crab, hermit crab, ghost
shrimp, knobbed whelk, surf clam, skimmer, brown pelican,
fiddler crabs, periwinkle snails, ribbed mussels, sea gulls,
common terns, great egret, snowy egret, great blue heron,
cormorant, sea anemone, sea star, sea whip, sea squirts,
bryozoan, grass shrimp, barnacles, oysters, polychaete
worms, Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, loggerhead sea turtle,
diamondback terrapin, gopher tortoise
Assign an organism to each student (or group of students).
They can create colorful posters, educational brochures, research
papers, or presentations on their discoveries. Students can
incorporate art, history, and English skills with scientific
inquiry.
Coastal Issues Role Play - Using the Georgia
coast as an example, have students think of specific coastal
issues that affect the people and nature of our coast. Take
one idea and develop a role play exercise around the issue.
Have students act out different roles and argue the particular
sides of the issue. Reserve some students for the non-biased
panel and have them vote to close the exercise. You can use
the following interest groups as ideas when developing roles:
- Environmental advocacy groups
- Local shop owners
- Government officials
- Citizens organization
- Real estate industry
- Tourist industry
- Nature conservancy groups
- Local politicians
- Senior citizens association
- Local economic groups
Recommended Books:
Coulombe, Deborah A. The Seaside Naturalist - A Guide to
Study at the Seaside. New York:Fireside-Simon and Schuster,
1992.
Ballantine, Todd. Tideland Treasure. Hilton Head Island,
SC: Deerfield Publishing, 1983.
Schoettle, H.E. Taylor, A Guide to a Georgia Barrier Island.
St Simons Island, GA: Watermarks Printing Company. Darien,
GA, The Darien News, Inc., 1996.
Kaplan, Eugene, H. Southeastern and Caribbean Seashores.
(A Peterson Field Guide). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1988.
Georgia Learning Connection Approved Lesson Plans
For lesson plans search the Georgia Learning Connections
database by keyword and grade. Other resources can also be
located through the Georgia Learning Connection website.
Oceans
and Their Content, Physical Properties, and Resources (Grade
5 Science and Technology Integration).
Oceans
in Peril (Grade 5 Language Arts and Earth/Space Science)
Sea
Turtles: Distribution (Grade 7 Life Science)
Sand
Sources (Grade 5 Earth/Space Science)
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